Stylistic Writing

I’ll take a little time to address three major style points that make reading a much smoother process.

The first point will take place as a frequently misused grammar mistake, the comma splice.

Use a comma to separate a dependent clause from an independent clause. Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses.

David received his degree in physics, he later went on to win a Nobel Prize.

This sentence is flawed. It should look like either of these examples:

David received his degree in physics; he later went on to win a Nobel Prize.


David received his degree in physics, and he later went on to win a Nobel Prize.

This minor flaw is probably the most abused rule in the English language.

The second point addresses style.

When writing a post you will move in and out of first and third person speaking.
First person dialogue uses passive voice.
Third person uses active voice.
Active voice uses a structure that flows in a linear sense.

[Subject] [verb] [noun]

Passive voice flips the sentence, placing the noun at the beginning and the subject at the end.

[Noun] [Be] [Participle Verb] [Subject]

[Passive] Caesar was stabbed by Brutus. Why don’t take a little more time getting to the point.
[Active] Brutus stabbed Caesar. No wasted words setting a participle into proper tense.

He was smart. No
The room was creepy. No
He was frightening. No!

His intelligence far surpassed that if his peers.
Macabre symbols desecrated the pale walls.
His visage frightened the children.

Writers use passive voice when something they speak in the moment or when the noun is more important than the subject.

The President was shot. President takes more importance than whomever shot him.

Dialogue should use passive voice, because it is currently happening.


The third point addresses clutter. Too many unimportance words make reading a pain.

Less is more.

Don’t write subject, verb, noun sentences, but don’t fill your sentence with words that drag it down. Keep modifiers to a minimum. Weed out excess sentences. Stay away from passive voice in third person narrative. These give posts a very nice flow.

Use only the necessary words to address your point.

John 11:35 Jesus Wept.

Proper modifiers can strengthen the words around it; clutter will detract from the context of the sentence.

Atlus Shrugged Vs. Brave New World

Aldous Huxley arises as the clear victor with Brave New World. He writes circles around Rand and her mammoth tome. In around two hundred pages Huxley addresses everything he needs and presents it with perfect diction, rhetoric, and semantics. Rand chases tangents, writes on irrelevant topics, and goes on about points that do not add to anything the reader couldn’t learn outside the book.

Everyone wants to get experience from their threads, but you didn’t come to this site to get make believe experience to put in a grid. You came to role-play.

William Zinsser wrote On Writing Well, and E.B. White wrote The Elements of Style. Most writers in the English language own The Elements of Style, and refer to it often. Neither book is expensive, and a quick search should turn up torrents of the books.

But I digress. These tips are merely stylistic, except for comma splices, and do not affect your creativity.
I offer these tips to help with delivery.

clap, clap, clap, Clap, CLap, CLAP CLAPAPAPAPCLAPCLAP! Wow, this was really great! Thank you, and well done. I hope everyone reads this and gets as much as I did out of it!

:nice:

All I got to say.

Two quick grammar rules.

The first one will address whoever and whomever.

Whoever = subject pronoun (he, she)
Whomever = object pronoun (him, her)

Give it to whomever wants it. Give it to him. You can substitute the word 'whomever' for the word 'him' without violating any rules.

Whoever wants it, gets it. He wants it. You can substitute the word 'he' into the sentence, therefore 'whoever' fits in that sentence.

The second rule concerns two people speaking in the same paragraph. You need to divide it. If a new character starts speaking put it in a new paragraph. Most people here use colors for their fonts for different characters, so use that to help put different quote blocks into different paragraphs.

One character speaks in one paragraph, and that is all.

And we're back with more stuff no one will read, because why would you?

Before talking about using active voice in first person dialogue, one grammatical mechanic needs to be addressed. You cannot have two people speaking in one paragraph. When the second person begins to speak, it needs to be in a new paragraph. This is a basic tenet of English, not style.

And then this about how to write in first person without making it too clunky.

Common misconceptions place an emphasis around removing passive verbs from your writing. This is the easiest way to begin more stylized writing, but outlawing any kind of device removes a degree of freedom. Passive verbs break two major rules of writing. The first is they place the subject of the noun at the end of the sentence and make the noun being acted upon act upon the subject. The second rule comes from the repetition of the verbs. Using the same adjective three times in a paragraph is unacceptable, and using the same verb, normally "was" (possibly the most boring verb in English) is just as unacceptable.

Saying that, the use of first person employs a good deal of passive verbs, due to the amount of narrative coming from a dialogue stand point.

When writing in an active format, you make the subject act upon the noun. "I pull into a gas station to fill up. I'm feeling a little apprehensive from the amount of time I spent on the road, but my legs feel like they can go with the motion." I use a passive verb, but still keep the active tense.

Turning a passive verb into a modal verb. It signifies permission and words like can, should, would, fall into this category. Passive verbs like Have, has, and be, can fall into this category to take place as an auxiliary modifier and maintain the active voice. When using one, try to only use one. If you can avoid "can be" by only using "can" or "be", do it.

The most important thing when using these verbs is keeping the tense the same. If you need a modal verb to keep tense, then do it. But, make sure you maintain the subject/noun relationship as the subject acts on the noun.

When using first person you can avoid passive voice necessities. When the subject of a third person sentence is unknown, then the verbs signify it by placing the noun at the front of the sentence. "The man was found shot." No one knows who shot him, and even though the sentence could be "An unknown assailant shot the man." It loses some strength by placing emphasis on something we don't need to know.

First person would state in narrative, "I found a man shot in the alleyway. Doesn't look like anyone left a calling-card, so this could be a long night." The sentence structure outshines third person in this context and the verb "be" stays in active form.